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A medieval document has revealed connections between how we celebrate Christmas today and an English monastery. The document is a list of relics given to Battle Abbey, which was bestowed on by two English monarchs, among others. Perhaps the most intriguing item in the inventory was St Nicholas’ aka Santa’s bone.
Ed Whelan - 19/12/2019 - 18:06
Some may remember the deadly book of Aristotle that plays a vital part in the plot of Umberto Eco’s 1980 novel The Name of the Rose. Poisoned by a mad Benedictine monk, the book wreaks havoc in a 14th-century Italian monastery, killing all readers who happen to lick their fingers when turning the toxic pages. Could something like this happen in reality? Poisoning by books?
ancient-origins - 01/07/2018 - 14:04
A recent study of medical and religious texts suggests that men were diagnosed with infertility as far back as Medieval times, and indeed may be held responsible for the inability to have children. Treatment regimes, at times bizarre and unpalatable, included eating ground up pig testicles.
Theodoros Karasavvas - 31/07/2017 - 01:43
By Richard Tuffin and Martin GIbbs /The Conversation
It is our experience that most people think archaeology mainly means digging in the dirt.
ancient-origins - 04/01/2019 - 01:51
The Brazen Bull (known also as the ‘Bull of Phalaris’, the ‘Bronze Bull’ or the ‘Sicilian Bull’) was a type of ancient torture and execution device from ancient Greece. The story of the Brazen Bull is connected with Phalaris, the tyrant of Acragas (known today as Agrigento, on the southern coast of Sicily), and Perillos (sometimes spelt as Perilaüs), an Attic bronze-worker. The Brazen Bull was an extremely cruel instrument, and its story is a renowned example of an invention that caused the death of its inventor.
dhwty - 26/04/2017 - 18:52
Cleopatra was one of four female alchemists who worked on producing the famous Philosopher's stone. She lived during the last remarkable period in Alexandria’s history, when it was still a city of open-minded scientists. Some of the most precious of her discoveries are included in her Chrysopoeia, which may even hold the key for a transmutation into gold.
Natalia Klimczak - 21/02/2017 - 18:50
We hear a lot about censorship in the news today but it’s nothing new. In fact, the word comes from the Latin word censeo, which means to assess. Almost as soon as the printing press was introduced to the West in 1450, those in power began banning books that challenged the status quo or their grip on power. But the banning of books is a tale as old as time and has been around in some form or another for thousands of years. Books and scrolls that weren’t outright banned were often censored into oblivion or simply burnt.
Robbie Mitchell - 08/10/2023 - 14:51
Before Mongol emperor Genghis Khan died in 1227 AD, he divided his vast empire into four khanates (fiefdoms) among three sons and a grandson. The westernmost of these regions was ruled by the Golden Horde, first headed by Genghis Khan’s grandson Batu Khan. Genghis’ son Jochi was to have ruled the huge territory, but he died six months before Genghis could bestow the vast area on him. So it went to Batu, Jochi’s son.
Mark Miller - 19/10/2018 - 14:02
Following the culmination of the Anglo-Egyptian War in 1882, the British used their experiences in colonizing the Indian subcontinent to tackle the geo-political scenario in Egypt, opening the country to Western influences.
anand balaji - 13/12/2021 - 21:09
A team of experts have made an important discovery about some Dead Sea Scroll fragments in the United Kingdom. They have found letters on four fragments that were believed to be ‘blanks’. This finding could help researchers to revisit other fragments of the texts and help them to better understand the enigmatic Dead Sea Scrolls and to fight against forgeries.
Ed Whelan - 19/05/2020 - 22:45
The original purpose of a mysterious patch of land beside England’s Fountains Abbey has finally been deciphered. Experts have concluded that it’s the largest and best-preserved tannery ever discovered at a medieval abbey in Britain.
ashley cowie - 26/10/2021 - 22:55
The noise that woke the neighbors in the twilight was the sound of trucks carrying the earth from the excavations in that small house in the neighborhood. What were they looking for in that little slum-like house? How many meters deep had they descended, since so much earth had come out of such a small place? Were they after a clue? Why was this excavation guarded by armed guards, and no one but a few authorized people could enter? What was the mystery of this excavation that lasted a year?
Refik - 27/08/2021 - 18:37
A new study shows ink on 2,000-year-old Egyptian papyri fragments contains copper. This means the assumption that carbon was the only basis for ink to write on ancient papyri is now a thing of the past. The information will help researchers trying to match fragments of ancient texts and in the conservation of papyri writings.
ancient-origins - 11/11/2017 - 22:50
An ancient necropolis dating to the 4th and 5th centuries AD has been discovered at a 17th-century palace on the idyllic Croatian island of Hvar. This Hvar necropolis is being called “the most important ever” in the island’s thousands of years of inhabitation.
ashley cowie - 20/06/2021 - 18:41
The Wellcome Trust Library, one of the world’s leading libraries on the human condition, has just released more than 100,000 images demonstrating thousands of years of culture and tradition throughout the world.
aprilholloway - 24/01/2014 - 00:40
First off let me thank the powers that be for adding this forum. I think it would be a good idea to create a thread for each ancient civilization and their writings. That way we are not searching through a 50 page thread for a particular civilization. Lets start with this one:
Dresden Codex
MAYA HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING
The Ancient Maya Codices
Ancient Times - 03/10/2014 - 22:02
A recently published book published by the British Library charts the evolution of iconic sea serpents, mermaids and other mythical creatures found on world maps from the 10th century through to medieval and Renaissance times. Despite their wild appearance, most of the creatures were based on true encounters with sea animals, shedding light on how mythology and folklore can evolve from real events.
aprilholloway - 07/09/2013 - 00:21
Chet Van Duzer has published extensively on historical geography and the history of cartography in journals such as Imago Mundi, Terrae Incognitae and Word & Image. He is also the author of Johann Schöner’s Globe of 1515: Transcription and Study, the first detailed analysis of one of the earliest surviving terrestrial globes that includes the New World; and (with John Hessler) Seeing the World Anew: The Radical Vision of Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 & 1516 World Maps.
ancient-origins - 08/02/2013 - 12:02
By now, you’re probably aware that the Greek hero Heracles (a.k.a. Hercules) had to complete twelve arduous labors as retribution for killing his wife and kids in a divinely-induced rage. The eighth of these involved tackling some man-eating horses that wanted to take a bite out of pretty much everyone.
Carly Silver - 28/04/2017 - 14:06
A 4000-year-old ancient Egyptian text illustrates the oldest map of the underworld in existence.
In 2012 archaeologists opened a burial shaft in the Middle Egyptian necropolis of Dayr al-Barsha and one of the coffins was found to be inscribed with text from ‘The Book of Two Ways,’ an illustrated guide to the afterlife.
ashley cowie - 09/10/2019 - 14:00